Singapore Buses route 190
Service 190 is a trunk route linking Choa Chu Kang Interchange and New Bridge Road Terminal, passing through Teck Whye Avenue, Bukit Panjang, Stevens, Orchard Road, Clarke Quay and Chinatown. It is also a 24-hour bus route owing to the high demand across the entire route. The route incorporates an express sector between Bukit Panjang and Whitley Road via BKE and PIE, making it a highly popular connecting route between Choa Chu Kang and the City. Service 190 is a major trunk route linking Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panajng with the City areas of Orchard Road, Clarke Quay and Chinatown. The express nature of the route provides a highly convenient connection between housing estates and the City areas, leading to frequent overcrowding along the route. Service 190 is among the most patronized bus services in Singapore, experiencing high demand throughout the day, and even more so during the peak hours. This is partially due to the lack of and undercoverage of existing bus routes between CCK / Teck Whye and the City. Also, the inconvenience of multiple transfers on the MRT lead to more commuters preferring the direct bus route over a train ride. Difficulty boarding Service 190 during weekday and weekend peak hours are commonplace. Commuters may consider alternative bus services to the city, such as 171, 700/A and 972. Bunching of buses is common owing to the short headway between buses. These are their short trips and normal trips that always happen for service 190: #Choa Chu Kang - New Bridge Road 24-hour service #Choa Chu Kang - Orchard Road (Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station) – also called 190A Morning peak service btw 7:30am and 10:30am (Duty 972AM51, Duty 972AM52, Duty 972AM53, Duty 972AM54 and Duty 972AM55) will perform crossover trips to 190A, in addition to two 190 departures. #Bukit Panjang Road (Blk 604) - New Bridge Road Morning peak service btw 8:00am and 8:30am Duty 61S107 will perform this trip. #Bukit Panjang Road (Zhenghua Primary School) - New Bridge Road Morning peak service btw 6:30am and 9:30am #Bukit Panjang Road (Blk 223) - New Bridge Road Morning peak service btw 7:00am and 10:00am #Bukit Panjang Road (Blk 270) - New Bridge Road Morning peak service btw 7:00am and 12:00pm #Eu Tong Sen Street (Clarke Quay MRT Station) via Fort Canning Tunnel to Choa Chu Kang - also called 190B Evening peak service btw 6.30pm and 12.30am #Orchard Road (YMCA) - Choa Chu Kang Late evening service btw 7.30pm and 11.00pm #Orchard Turn (Ngee Ann City) - Choa Chu Kang Late evening service btw 8.00pm and 11.00pm #Somerset Road (Somerset Station) - Choa Chu Kang Late evening service btw 9.00pm and 12.00am Duty 176PM50 will perform this trip during weeknights. #Scotts Road (Thong Teck Building) - Choa Chu Kang Late evening service btw 9.00pm and 11.00pm With the reduction, the service 190 have reduced 5 morning peak departures, 3 evening peak departures and 9 late evening departures to cope with the load. Fleet Route 190's fleet consisted of New Bus for Singapore double deckers. The MAN NG363F, Mercedes-Benz OC500LE and MAN A95 were trialled on service 190 at most, and demonstrators were deployed on this first route. TN-classed Plaxton Presidents under FirstGroup were initially ran from 1999 to 2003, before bendy buses were introduced in 2003 - 2005. These high capacity buses have dominated the fare evasion together with service 67, 851 and 960, under Metrobus too, although fare evasion have dodged through before the fines were imposed in June 2008. It was withdrawn by December 2011. The B9TLs were coded VN before the Metroline's partial takeover in June 2013, which has been renumbered to VW. The comfortable seating of the 59-reg buses are aged well than the 61-reg buses of the grumbling buses. History *1988 (10 Jul): Introduced by Singapore Bus Service (SBS)/Ernest between Bukit Panjang and New Bridge Road. *1990 (16 Dec): Extended to start from Choa Chu Kang *1993 (03 Jan): Amended to ply express along PIE to Whitley Rd instead of Jln Anak Bukit/Upp Bukit Timah Rd and Dunearn Rd/Bukit Timah Rd *1999 (25 Jul): Handed to Trans-Island Bus Services (TIBS)/Timothy, later rebranded as SMRT. *1999 (Dec): Amended from Choa Chu Kang Way to Choa Chu Kang Dr and Teck Whye Ave, as part of the BPLRT Rationalisation. *2013: Service improvement under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP) *2014 (18 Aug): Enviro500 double-deck buses deployed *2015 (14 Jun): Designated wheelchair-accessible bus route (WAB) Route Information Eastbound Westbound